NFL franchise moves and mergers

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Throughout the years, a number of teams in the National Football League (NFL) have either moved or merged.

In the early years, the NFL was not stable and teams moved frequently to survive, or were folded only to be resurrected in a different city with the same players and owners. The Great Depression era saw the movement of most surviving small-town NFL teams to the large cities to ensure survival. Franchise mergers were popular during World War II in response to the scarcity of players. Few of these relocations and mergers were accompanied with widespread controversy.

Franchise moves became far more controversial in the late 20th century when a vastly more popular NFL, free from financial instability, allowed many franchises to abandon long-held strongholds for perceived financially greener pastures. Despite a Pete Rozelle promise to Congress not to relocate franchises in return for a law exempting the league from certain aspects of antitrust laws, making possible the AFL-NFL merger, several franchises have relocated in the years since the merger and the passage of the law (Public Law 89-800) which sanctioned it.

While owners invariably cited financial difficulties as the primary factor in such moves, many fans bitterly disputed these contentions, especially in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Cleveland, each of which eventually received teams some years after their original franchises left. However, Los Angeles, the second-largest media market in the United States, has not had an NFL team since 1995. Since at least 2006, the league has been actively promoting a return to Los Angeles,[1] and in January 2016, three teams formally applied to the league to relocate to that metropolitan area, with at most two of the requests likely to be approved.[2][3] Another city that is often mentioned as a potential site for a moved franchise is Toronto, the largest city and media market in Canada and the subject of frequent speculation regarding a future franchise.

Additionally, with the increasing suburbanization of the U.S., the building of new stadiums and other team facilities in the suburbs instead of the central city became popular from the 1970s on, though at the turn of the 2000 millennium a reverse shift back to the central city became somewhat evident.

Timeline

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Main article: National Football League franchise timeline

Teams making more significant moves, in chronological order

Quasi-moves: movement of more or less intact teams from one city to another

The NFL considers these separate franchises but there is significant continuity from one to the other

Franchise mergers

Teams moving between cities/boroughs within their metropolitan area, chronologically by team's first such move

Temporary moves, in chronological order

The following are not actually relocations, but temporary moves because these teams' home stadiums were either under construction or otherwise adversely affected:

Ultimate disposition of the 15 charter franchises

By the start of the 1920 APFA season, the nascent National Football League was composed of 15 franchises. Of those teams, only two are still in operation as of 2015 (denoted in bold):

  • Akron Pros: Changed name to Akron Indians in 1926. Permanently suspended operations in 1927.
  • Buffalo All-Americans: Changed name to Buffalo Bisons in 1924, Buffalo Rangers in 1926, and changed back to Buffalo Bisons in 1927 before suspending operations halfway through 1927. Resumed play in 1929, but folded following the season. City is currently represented by the Buffalo Bills, a charter member of the American Football League in 1960.
  • Canton Bulldogs: Cleveland Bulldogs in 1923. Suspended operations in 1924. Resumed play in Canton in 1925. Folded following 1926 season. City is currently represented only by the preseason Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.
  • Chicago Cardinals: Merged with Pittsburgh Steelers for one year in 1944. Returned as an independent team in 1945. Moved to St. Louis in 1960. Moved to Phoenix in 1988. Changed name to Arizona Cardinals in 1994.
  • Chicago Tigers: Folded following 1920 season.
  • Cleveland Tigers: Folded following 1921 season. City is currently represented by the Cleveland Browns.
  • Columbus Panhandles: Changed name to Columbus Tigers in 1923. Folded following 1926 season.
  • Dayton Triangles: Moved to Brooklyn as Brooklyn Dodgers in 1930. Changed name to Brooklyn Tigers in 1944. Merged with Boston Yanks in 1945. Folded after 1945 season.[8]
  • Decatur Staleys: Moved to Chicago in 1921. Changed name to Chicago Bears in 1922.
  • Detroit Heralds: Changed name to "Tigers" and folded in the middle of the 1921 season, sending its players to Buffalo. City currently represented by the Detroit Lions.
  • Hammond Pros: Folded following 1926 season.
  • Massillon Tigers: Represented at the September 17, 1920, meeting by Ralph Hay but never played in the league and are only counted as a charter member on a technicality.
  • Muncie Flyers: Folded following 1921 season.
  • Rochester Jeffersons: Suspended operations following 1925 season; folded in 1928.
  • Rock Island Independents: Left NFL and became an independent team following 1924 season. Joined first American Football League in 1926, but folded before end of season.

The case of the Indianapolis Colts

The Indianapolis Colts have perhaps the most complex history of any football team in the NFL. The Colts can trace their history as far back as 1913, with the founding of the Dayton Triangles. The team then went through the following changes:[8]

Officially, all of these teams except for the second Baltimore Colts and the Indianapolis Colts are considered separate franchises.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Canadian expansion not on NFL radar, CBC Sports, 2/3/2006
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ http://www.hickoksports.com/history/toledomaroons.shtml
  5. ↑ Willis, 2010, p. 323–325.
  6. ↑ Peterson, 1997, p. 122.
  7. ↑ McDonough, 1994, p. 50.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Bibliography

  • Official 2005 National Football League Record and Fact Book. New York: Time Inc. Home Entertainment. (2005). ISBN 1-932994-36-X
  • Carroll, Bob; with Gershman, Michael, Neft, David, and Thorn, John (1999). Total Football:The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-270174-6
  • McDonough, Will (1994). 75 Seasons: The Complete Story of the National Football League. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, Inc. ISBN 1-57036-056-1
  • Peterson, Robert W. (1997). Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507607-9
  • Willis, Chris (2010). The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8108-7669-9
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